Institutional drivers of urban growth in the central Arizona-Phoenix area

The Institutional Drivers of Growth in Phoenix is currently ongoing. The purpose
of the project is to understand how the complex mix of institutions, federal, state,
and local, influence the pattern of growth in Phoenix. This year we focused on state
trust land, specifically changing state trust land policy in Arizona and the west in
general. We are approaching the state trust land sub-project by conducting
qualitative research of policy archival documents. The assessment of state trust
land referenda included a text and factor analysis of the policy dimensions.
Additionally, the Institutional Drivers project has just begun to work in concert
with �Socioecological Gradients and Land-Use Fragmentation: A Cross-Site Comparative
Analysis.� The Institutional Drivers that we�ve gathered include annexation data, as
well as preliminary assessment of growth management policy. In the American West, vast stocks of federally and state managed land and a
relatively long history of self-governance and direct democracy unite to form heated
public debates about use, management, and values. We investigate the nexus of these
two threads of American politics, direct democracy and public land policies, through
a qualitative study of ballot propositions on state trust land over the last
century. A database of state trust land propositions was developed with forty-two
propositions from fourteen states with over 90% from the West. Using word count as
ideological placements we identified twenty-nine topics in the propositions. Text
and principle component analysis reduced these to four dimensions of debate: 1)
resource use procedures, 2) use of the fund, 3) management, and 4) investment.
Additionally, we identified one issue that is receding in importance, resource
extraction, while conservation and development concerns are emerging as new
priorities. This study uses analysis of the policy language of ballot propositions
to understand the political debates over state trust land over the past century.